Predictably, this past weekend, the Swazi media has been full of reports from King Mswati III’s opening of Parliament that took place on Friday.
The king’s speech was broadcast live by state-controlled television and radio – although true to form Swazi TV technicians weren’t up to the job and the king was cut off in mid sentence while I was watching.
So we had to wait until the following day for the newspaper coverage.
Both the Swazi News and the Weekend Observer (9 February 2008) produced the text of the speech in full. Both also had plenty of stories and pictures of women in hats and such like. There was among the newspaper journalists plenty of praise for the king, but very little analysis.
Alec Lushaba, the Weekend Observer editor, led the cheers for the ‘insightful’ and ‘remarkable’ speech.
Thulani Thwala at the Swazi News was a bit more world-weary. He criticised the king’s advisors and speechwriters (in Swaziland you are not allowed to criticise the king himself) for a speech that was more or less the same every year.
In the speech, the king ‘gave away’ E431 million (about 61 million US Dollars) in spending on education, grants for elderly people, food security and other things.
All media emphasised that the Swazi economy had grown by 2.5 percent over the past year. The tone of the king’s speech was that things are going well, but we still need to work harder.
Thwala saw through some of this in his column. He reminded readers that in the past the king has made announcements about extra spending, but then nothing happened on the ground.
Thwala has a point here, but my main criticism of the speech and the way it has been reported is that journalists have divorced the speech from the reality of the situation in Swaziland. This is best seen in the statement about economic growth and the state of the economy.
The truth is that the Swazi economy is dire and is in danger of collapse unless the government acts quickly to change its current policies.
This is not new information. Last year (2007) the International Monetary Fund (IMF) reported on Swaziland. In its official report the IMF stated that ‘Swaziland’s economic performance remains weak. Poverty has escalated in the face of high and rising unemployment, food shortages, and the world’s highest HIV/AIDS infection rate. In 2006, growth slowed to around 2 percent; inflation is rising; and the current account surplus is narrowing.’
The IMF report went on to say that the amount of money Swaziland was receiving through the Southern Africa Customs Union (SACU) made the economy of Swaziland look better than it really was. This, however, was a temporary windfall of money that was expected to run out in 2007/2008. After that date the amount of money coming from the SACU would ‘sharply decline’.
The present economic policy of Swaziland would be unworkable once the SACU revenues decline, the IMF report stated. The IMF recommended that to save the economy the Swaziland Government had to change its economic policies. Top of the list was for the government to reduce its wages bill, begin civil service reform and privatize state-owned assets.
Also on the list of improvements were structural reforms such as labour market reforms; simplifying business licensing requirements and procedures; improving transportation, energy, and telecommunication infrastructures; and enhancing land productivity by a strategy for land reform.
The IMF reported in March 2007 and the media in Swaziland picked up the story at the time. Perhaps, more accurately I should say they picked up the IMF press release and copied it into their newspapers. If the coverage of the king’s speech is anything to go by the journalists did not understand what the IMF was saying.
The IMF warned that after 2007/2008 the amount of revenue coming to Swaziland from the SACU would ‘sharply decline’. At present approximately 70 percent of all Swaziland’s revenue comes from the SACU. A sharp decline spells economic disaster for the kingdom.
The king (or his advisors) choose to ignore this looming crisis – the journalists should not.
See also
SWAZILAND’S OTHER ‘BLACK WEDNESDAY’
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